Skills for Life: Home Management and Maintenance
Home management and maintenance is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners plan cleaning, safety and security routines for each room of a home on a floor plan, wire a plug and choose the right fuse, choose and fit a light bulb, sort waste for recycling and sort laundry using care labels, linking choices to energy and water use. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low because the tasks are practical. Digital work is limited to an optional digital floor plan, online research and acknowledging sources and AI.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: list, outline or identify household routines and demonstrate basic, simple or most steps in practical tasks. The essential information for assessment decisions names the tasks: noting cleaning, safety and security routines for each room on a floor plan or equivalent, fitting a fuse or wiring a plug, fitting a bulb, sorting waste and recycling, and sorting laundry using labels. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, adapting Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief or devising their own, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) the main skills and activities in household routines, safety and sustainability, and complete practical tasks, competently at Level 2: an annotated floor plan, wiring an old style plug and choosing the correct fuse for a heating appliance, choosing and fitting a bulb, sorting all waste items, and choosing wash cycles from laundry labels with links to energy and water use. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
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Finding household information online
Annexe C notes that the unit content mentions online sources, for example for recycling rules, fabric care symbols or how to choose a bulb, but sets no digital task. Learners may research these online, judging which sources are reliable, but this is suggested only and not assessed.
DCF: Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils search their local council website to find which items go in which recycling box and make a list of five items for each box.
- Year 8
- Pupils search for the meaning of six laundry care symbols, try two different sets of keywords, and note which website gave the clearest answer.
- Year 9
- Pupils compare advice on choosing an energy saving light bulb from a manufacturer's site and an independent site, and explain which they trust more and why.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Annexe C, SfL 16 Digital Links, page 163
“mentions online sources but no explicit digital tasks required”
Progression step 3
I can adjust keywords and search techniques to find relevant information.
I can begin to reference sources used in my work, and consider if content is reliable.
Progression step 4
I can search a variety of sources using relevant search techniques with increased complexity.
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
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Referencing sources and acknowledging AI
Learners at every level must certify that their evidence is their own and clearly reference any sources and any AI used, for example websites used for recycling rules or care symbols. Using AI tools without acknowledging them is malpractice. This applies to all assessed evidence.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils write the name of the website they used for recycling facts under their recycling poster.
- Year 8
- Pupils keep a list of the web pages they used to research laundry symbols, with the date they visited each one.
- Year 9
- Pupils ask an AI tool for a weekly cleaning rota, check it against a cleaning product label, rewrite it in their own words and note which tool they used.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 16, Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 80
“they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used”
Progression step 3
I can understand that copying the work of others and presenting it as my own is plagiarism.
I can cite sources when researching and explain the importance of this, e.g. create simple lists for the referencing of digital and offline sources.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
I can act responsibly as creator and user of creative work, e.g. exploring decisions that creators make when exercising their creative rights and responsibilities, giving consideration to ethical, real-life issues.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfL 16 Home management and maintenance" with a Unit GLH of 20 (Unit summary, page 5). It counts towards the Pearson Skills for Life qualifications, for example C00/5444/4 "Pearson Level 1 Skills for Life Award" (Qualification titles, page 4).
- A unit counts only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6, and Assessment of units, page 9), so schools should decide which level each learner is working towards.
- The required teaching content is in a separate document: it is in the "Teaching and Learning Support document t for this unit" (Unit content, page 78), which also shows a stray letter t in the printed text.
- The practical tasks need equipment. From Entry 3 learners wire an old style plug, and Level 1 learners "wire an old-style plug correctly, knowing the names of each of the wires" (Level 1, page 79), as well as fitting fuses and bulbs and sorting real waste and laundry items. The centre "can decide the resource requirements" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 80).
- Safety supervision is expected at lower levels: Entry 1 learners "recognise when an adult needs to take over, especially in relation to safety issues" (Levels of supervision and support, page 80).
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 78), but "achievement cannot be inferred from performance" (Section 4, page 9), so practical tasks need observation records or photographs.
- AI must be acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 80).
- Annexe C records "No direct link" for digital, as the unit "mentions online sources but no explicit digital tasks required" (Annexe C, page 163), and Annexe B ticks no digital link (page 158).
- The unit says its cross-cutting theme experiences "can be found in Annexe E" (page 81), but Annexe E has no row for SfL 16: the table goes straight from SfL 5 to SfL 18 (page 172), and Annexe D ticks no themes for this unit (page 168).
Links with other qualifications
Pearson maps the unit to the Science and Technology and Humanities 'What matters' statements, and its practical, safety and sustainability work links with WJEC GCSE Design and Technology and the WJEC VCSE in Built Environment, which the WJEC unit also names, while sorting waste and choosing low energy wash cycles links with the WJEC Skills Suite unit Sustainability in Action. Financial Literacy pairs naturally with the budgeting in the unit content, and Food Planning and Preparation shares cleaning and hygiene routines. Compared with the WJEC Home management and maintenance unit, also 20 hours, which has four learning outcomes covering routines, simple maintenance with hand tools such as assembling flat pack items, hygiene and sustainable habits, the Pearson unit has one criterion per level built around set practical tasks, including electrical tasks such as wiring a plug, fitting a fuse and choosing a bulb that the WJEC unit does not include.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 16: Home management and maintenance.